My Technophobia

I'm havin my last exam for 2004 tomorrow, bu-bu-but I've been here sitting butt aching, skipping from online shops and classifieds to useless chat rooms... just to catch a glimpse of the best deal for an apple powerbook or perhaps even a pearl white ibook.

There's been some funny thoughts running through my head lately; it seems I've seen it once or twice in a magazine or a digi-column...the only difference is... it's my name spelled out this time: The new macintosh man of Asia: Pamela Almeda!!!

Yes! I've been entertaining the idea of swapping roles with Mr. Peter Barber (The Macintosh Man of Asia, they say); toying with the idea of facilitating the topmost post production facilities of the region; dreaming of these crunchy treats: the Pismos,the ipods and all the delicious apple gizmos available.

I remember the first time I laid my eyes (and hands) on this lovely 15" powerbook which my friend lent me a few months back... it was love at first sight (you can say that)! The sexy titanium design topped with that slim lightweight feel and the sleek widescreen made me fall for this macintosh.

It was my first bite on the apple.

Two to three years ago you would never hear me talk like this. Funny, how I amaze myself at times. I mean, I've never seen myself as someone tech-savvy nor someone interested in all the techie trinkets this modern world can offer. For one, I have this trauma with computers.
Back then in my early high school days, I had all these bad experiences with my computer. It was a nauseating relationship and I hated electronics stuff since then. Think about this: you've typed a twenty page report and for some reason your computer blanks out on ya. Sounds familiar? I'm sure one or two of you can relate to what I'm saying, the Philippine energy crises, halloooo!

But my computer did not only give up on me during these times. On strange occassions, as if echoing our mutual disgust for each other, it would simply decide to hang, to make strange & irritating noises, to suddenly reboot or shut down, and if I'm lucky it would have had auto-saved my work. Unfortunately I was most often than not, UNlucky. I would crawl myself to the cranky Brother typewriter which nevertheless had the automatic erase feature and think: why on earth didn't I work here earlier on. But there were also lotsa times that Brother acted just like Mr. PC. And there I'd wish I was living in the stone age or probably in ancient times when hieroglyphics was hot! I'd do anything to escape the whims and fancies of the electronic age. I thought to myself, I love the smell of ancient-seasoned paper!

What's worse was having to wake up your father in the middle of the night, disturb his deep sleep and ask him to fix your rebellious computer. Honestly, there were those days I felt like I awakened a big grizzly bear from his hibernation camp. I'd be frightened by an almost animalistic howl. There were times though that the big bear seemed more cuddly, more like a cub I guess. But the same nagging animalistic howls remained.

This was how I got this technophobia, the "electro-phobia". But apple changed all that. I found one best friend that could save me from this boring city...I guess. I'll get back to you on this with another entry It's 10:19pm. my clock, gotta start studying before I fall asleep! (I hate this running thot of the grizzly running after me hungry and distressed)

Poncho

I don't know why I have this thing for the word "Poncho"?

It's not that I love rain or what

Just used to think that I had the word made up myself I guess

I don't think it's because my grampa's name is Ponciano

Or that it sounds a li'l bit like Punch!

I just have this thing about the word Poncho...

Who on earth knows why?

All I know is I'd like to name my dog Poncho.

Poncho... PonchoOOOO.. PonchoWwww!...Poncho.

"Poncho" up there (i'm yet to get the real one) was given to me by Angelo April last year.

One rare "Kolasa" Day

It was the ninth of November.
A few days have passed but I still giggle with the thought of my girlfriends.

We were invinsible in high school, or so we thought.

P.

N.

L.

"PaJaMa Ni LoLo"

Pam. aka Djoux Drena

Jam. aka Shandy

Maj. aka Maj

Nat. aka Khalil Inq

Leslie. aka Bambah

Lariza. aka Brez

Larissa. aka Khylie

[          With what it's worth, PNL was a small subset of the "homogenous" class, a crass term for the honor's class I suppose. We sorta delighted with the idea of being part of the so-called 'intellectual elite' but a tinge of dismay was inevitable considering being nicknamed the "homos" (strange connotations huh?!). Besides, we sorta played this rythm which was kinda off beat from the mainstream of all the so-called 'homos' e.g. Leadership Training Seminar, Meetings with the real Ms. P, the story of the stone table, Elections for the environment club, the recollection dramas, the random calls to who-knows-who, the attention grabbing hair accessories.. oops!, the cylindrical tank & the pea... and who'd forget the spice girls act (If you're a PNL you should get all these)         ]

Anyway, it was a Tuesday afternoon and by some mystic leap of fate, I bumped into Nat online yahoo messenger. You should understand how exciting this moment was for me. You see, for the almost-4-years I've been here in Singapore, I never had a chance to chat with Nat-nat online. Although we see each other whenever I'm in Metro-philly (to borrow one of Nat's coined term), I still miss our small talks and deep chit-chats.


Nat was the youngest whiz kid in our batch. She's been my solid partner in one of the most carefree days of my life i.e. Hard Rock yugyugan days; Hotel hopping & crashin' buffet treats; ex-boyfriends barkada romance (the horse and the frog heehee!), Birthday buddies all night; that's just to name a few... So it was darn one rare occassion! And who'd guess that through her I'd also be chatting with another long lost friend, who else but Maj?! Thing is, I haven't seen Maj for all the years I was back and forth Manila and Singapore.


Maj was another strong lady who believed in me, a partner in reaching new heights: from high school dances and living room sagas (just to get parental consent before we'd escape for another gimik spree!)to deviant...or should I say unique fashion trends and even to college (DLSU)leadership trainings.


The three of us were just eager to find out the latest on each other's life be it career-wise and of course everbody's 'love life'. We went through most of them: Simon, Ricky, Macky, Mike, Angelo, Coy, Joel, Andro, Mark.... the list went on... I realized Nat was the most blest in this respect or is she? (Let's ask Mr. M of Mr. J) and Maj refused or simply didn't have one after Mr. S.(Maybe time didn't permit). As for me, I shared a bit on Mr. A.

Then, as girl talks usually roll, it came to stories on other girls e.g. who's married and preggy in our high school batch... Who's doing what...Who's this & that...I thought to myself, amazed at how time flies and how conversations change through the passing of time. 'Pretty soon, maybe say five more years, conversations would drift from the sensational bf/gf to how many kids we all have. Scary! (sino kaya hubbies namin lahat?) Exciting! (Bait? cutey!?) Ewan! Hehe!

Finally, came the blogger story. Nat and I effortlessly convinced Maj to put up her blog! Yehey to the power of two! Maj the "creative cow"(<--- Nat:*censored*). Kindly refer to Maj's new site for the complete story. - majician.blogspot.com


Our mini conference was short lived, thanks to Maj's busy schedule. But it was surely fun reminiscing and going through all those catch up thrills. My girlfriends are treasures hard to find. I realized that although we're treading different paths now, we still have a lot in common. One strange PNL heartbeat goin on there?! ...A passion for life & a search for one's identity at its best...


Maj is now a successful producer in the biggest production house in the Philippines! Beat that!

Nat, now on 1st yr med proper, is on her way to be the #1 doctor in the Philippines (together with 2 other PNL's who'd share the same spot namely Dr. Jam & Dr. Chex)

As for me, I'll be graduating next year to find my "soul success"! SimplAaaay LaOOoovelAaaay!!!


p.s. visit natalisms.blogspot.com to have a share of Nat's peppershaker thots... Maj donch 4get to send me the video! Won't mind getting another of those hard-knock laughs!
Maj, with Eartha, got me to act for their "Kamay ng Tadhana" video when she could have done perfect for the role. hehe!
(to be continued)

To a friend who's now a father

Seeing your baby makes me feel the wonder of being simply sweet and so innocent without even trying. It's amazing how one lovely soul is born to the world; skin so smooth, each step so fragile... She's beautiful . What I love most is her thick curly black hair. It's just so natural, reminds me of the sad reality though, that as people grow up the unnatural tends to subsume the spirit i.e. colored rebonded hairsdos, fake nails, make up & all the what-have-yous of this modern age.


But then again, as I pay attention more closely, the second time around, makes me realize that babies like Juleana give us some hope, hope in the mere presence of that fresh innocence bringing us back to the beginning of our own fairytale... because 'once upon a time' we were also young, sweet and innocent.


I pray that you'd see her through this life and give her one lovely fairytale she deserves.

an unwanted series

This is one of those days when all things uncontrollable unite against you.
In stressful times such as these (a.k.a. D heat of exams), my number one enemy is sleep.Yup! Pamster is Master Crammer these days.
And so when a pile of readings (which take note: could fit in one giant 'balikbayan' box or two)has been touched pretty rarely for the whole semester, it's no surprise one will resort to certain desperate measures (a.k.a. D no sleep mode).
which brings me back in a nice roundabout to my short story:

Last night I actually planned a strategy on how to breeze the first exam of my fourth and final year! (yehey! to that). Since the exam was on media law and the exam guide given by our teacher was quite revealing and pretty comprehensive, I figured I could construct my well-thought out points that night, put them in outline form black & white, and then voila! - continue practicing the whole night til morning as if the exam was actually going on at that very moment. So writing for two hours (as my exam would be 9:30 to 11:30 the next morning)and repeating the process would give me the best shot.

In hindsight, I actually planned this strategy days ago. So the plan was exactly the same for the day before yesterday , save some "dilly dallying" in between.

(Now close your eyes for a minute and imagine time flew fast forward and...)
Pamster-master-crammer stares blankly to the basketball net on her right. Sitting aimlessly in a chair surrounded by 500 others or so inside the indoor basketball court of the Sports Recreation Center where the exam was set, her mind races in trip---trap---trip---trap---. Once or twice she pauses forgetting her point, it's total mental black out!Argh!

Considering that she's grabbed the whole package of sleep the night before she should have been more composed but what if she was not able to follow the initial strategy of battle?

(back to reality and a little fast forward)
And yes that was exactly what happened. my greatest enemy deceived me: Mr. Sleep seduced me into the bed for a second(Boo for that!)& I, stupid I, thinking for one fleeting moment that I will have the boldness to stand up against my comfy pillows, freshly washed bedsheets and cool soft cushions, I succumbed.

And so the story goes, I woke up horrified that it was merely an hour before the exams and I was a million footsteps away from the testing area. The battle was lost for this one.

Tomorrow I've got two exams to battle in a row (one for the morning session and the other in the afternoon)! I'm not so sure how the fight will be this time. But I still hope I could try focusing on reviewing and actually pursuing my strategy and not be stuck here in the computer blabbing to you that I should have simply not slept: my main point. Finally!

See sleep makes you slow, ironic!